Nov. 17, 2007
Long Beach, CA - The No. 3 Stanford men's swim team captured their fifth straight Nike Cup Saturday evening with a final score of 1,965 points. BYU (1002) and Air Force (847) took second and third, but it was all Cardinal, as they continued to stack win after win on the final day of competition. An "official" Stanford victory in the 1,650 free was negated by a rule allowing only one official individual final swim per session, as freshman David Mosko, who would go on to officially compete in the 200 butterfly, turned in the fastest time of 15:24.10. BYU swimmer Travis Price was the benefactor of Mosko's unofficial status, as his 15:36.91 was good enough to get the official victory.
Stanford sophomore Eugene Godsoe put exactly four seconds on his nearest competitor in the 200 backstroke, as he turned in a very swift 1:43.91. The swim just barely missed an NCAA automatic qualifying standard, but clearly established Godsoe as one of the premier backstrokers in the nation.
The 100 free was all Stanford, all the time, as the eight fastest times of the event and the top six places were claimed by Cardinal athletes. The sprinters from The Farm sent a message to their competitors (and to the equally dominant Stanford breastroke group) that they take a herd mentality when it comes to winning an event. Freshman Austin Staab led the stampede with a new meet record of 43.70, breaking a fifteen-year-old standard from UCLA's Brian Kurza (43.91). Junior Jason Dunford and senior Daniel Beal chased Staab under the forty-four second mark, and under the old meet record, with very impressive early season swims of 43.82 and 43.84.
The breastroke group heard the challenge loud and clear, as they responded with their own sweep of the 200 breastroke. The top five finishers and six of the top eight event finalists wore the Cardinal "S" on their caps. Junior Nate Cass was the first to the wall in 1:56.94, followed by classmates Paul Zaich (1:58.85), Chris Ash (1:59.02) and Paul Kornfeld (1:59.13).
The 200 fly marked only the second individual event where a Stanford swimmer did not submit the fastest time, as UC-Irvine's Eddie Erazo took gold, a NCAA automatic cut and new meet record with an effort of 1:44.54. The quickest miler took second in this event, as Stanford freshman David Mosko gave a 1:47.39 for his second grueling swim of the night. Sophomore Patrick Simpkins was close on his heels with a third-place showing of 1:47.89.
Unfortunately, the Stanford men had to call it a night before the 400 free relay, as a potential missed flight outweighed their desire for a clean sweep of the Nike Cup relay events. BYU covered in their stead with a winning time of 3:02.24.
The Stanford swimmers now look to the Texas Invitational as their next competition, Nov 29th through Dec 1st in Austin, TX. The divers have one more day of competition at the Purdue Invitational on Sunday, November 18th.